(Capo 3. Bund)
D a
C D
C
Once I was a waiting man that lived at home at ease.
G C
G D
G
Now I am a mariner that ploughs the stormy seas.
D a
C
D C
I always loved seafaring life, I bid my love adieu
G C
G
D
G
I shipped as steward and cook, me boys, on board the Kangaroo.
Chorus:
D a C D C
Oh I never thought she would prove false or either prove untrue
G C G D G
As we sailed away from Milford Bay on board the Kangaroo.
"Think of me, oh think of
me," she mournfully did say,
"When you are in a foreign land and I am far away.
Take this lucky thrupenny bit, it will make you bear in mind
This loving trusting faithful heart you left in tears behind."
"Cheer up, cheer up, my own
true love, don't weep so bitterly,"
She sobbed, she sighed, she choked, she cried and could not say goodbye
"I won't be gone for very long, but for a month or two.
When I will return again of course I'll visit you."
Chorus
Our ship it was homeward bound
from many's the foreign shore
Many's the foreign present unto me love I bore.
I brought tortoises from Tenerife and ties from Timbuktoo
A China rat, a Bengal cat and a Bombay cockatoo.
Paid off I sought her dwelling
on a street above the town
Where an ancient dame upon the line was hanging out her gown.
"Where is me love?" "She's vanished, Sir, about six months ago
With a smart young man who drives the van for Chaplin Son & Co."
Chorus
Here's a health to dreams of married
life, to soap suds and blue,
Heart's true love, patent starch and washing soda too.
I'll go unto some foreign shore, no longer can I stay
With some China Hottentot I'll throw my life away.
My love she is no foolish girl,
her age it is two score
My love she is no spinster, she's been married twice before.
I cannot say it was her wealth that stole me heart away;
She was a washer in a laundry for one and nine a day.
Chorus